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MPs fight for more NHS funding for Bury

BURY’S two MPs are backing local health bosses in their fight for more NHS funding.

The commitment by Bury North MP David Nuttall and Bury South MP Ivan Lewis follows the news that NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) faces a £60 million shortfall in funding during the next three years.

Bury’s CCG leaders will appeal to NHS England to end the “historical under-funding” of the town’s NHS budget.

NHS Bury CCG chief officer Stuart North claimed they should be receiving an extra £20 million a year and that Bury is the most underfunded CCG in the north of England.

Tory MP Mr Nuttall said: “In the 2014/2015 financial year, funding for Bury’s CCG will increase by 3.41 per cent, giving them £7.1 million more to spend than in the current year. This is the largest percentage increase of any of the CCGs in Greater Manchester. NHS England have also stated there will be another increase of more than three per cent in the following year.”

“I have met with the chairman of the Bury CCG and they are to let me have more details as to why they think they are entitled to a greater allocation of resources and I will, of course, provide any help and assistance they require in making representations to NHS England.”

Labour MP Ivan Lewis said: “Local NHS patients will be shocked that there is a shortfall of £20 million in the annual budget to be allocated to the NHS in Bury.

“This is grotesquely unfair at a time when the Tory-led Government have wasted millions on a top down reorganisation of the NHS that nobody wanted. I'll be working with James Frith, Labour’s Parliamentary candidate in Bury North and council leader Mike Connolly to extend our Fair Deal for Bury campaign to include the NHS as well as council services.”